Functional analysis of ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 under low-phosphate stress in maize.

The PHOSPHATE STARVATION RESPONSE REGULATOR (PHR) plays a crucial regulatory role in plants during the process of responding to phosphate starvation. In this study, we combined reverse genetics and biotechnology to investigate the function of ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2, including proteins containing the Myb_DNA_banding and Myb_CC-LHEQLE structural domains, in maize seedlings. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 have high homology with AtPHR1 and OsPHR2, and share the characteristic features of nuclear localisation and transcriptional self-activation. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that low phosphate (Pi) stress significantly induced the expression of ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 in maize seedling stage, and candidate gene association analysis further revealed the close association of these two genes with root traits under Pi stress conditions. Transgenic plants overexpressing ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 in Arabidopsis show a significant increase in lateral root number, fresh weight and total phosphorus accumulation under low-Pi stress. Besides, CHIP-PCR experiments identified target genes involved in hormone regulation, metal ion transport and homeostasis, phosphatase encoding, and photosynthesis, providing new insights into the biological functions of ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2. Furthermore, our study showed that ZmPHR1 interacts with six SPX domain-only proteins (ZmSPXs) in maize, while ZmPHR2 interacts with five of these proteins. ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 expression was repressed in low Pi conditions, but was up-regulated in ZmSPX1 knockout material, according to our study of transgenic seedlings overexpressing ZmSPX1 in maize. We identified downstream target genes involved in the phosphorus signaling pathway, which are mainly involved in plant-pathogen interactions, ascorbic acid and arabinose metabolism, and ABC transporter proteins, by RNA-seq analysis of transgenic seedlings grown under low Pi stress for 7 days. Collectively, these results provide important clues to elucidate the role and functional significance of ZmPHR1 and ZmPHR2 under low Pi stress and also provide insights into understand the molecular mechanism of phosphorus homeostasis in maize.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-024-01508-2.